Song Studies I (July 2022):
and i wanna know who else is in on it
Released September 8, 2022
Album Context:
I've long been fascinated by the "artistic study" as a practice. I might like them more than the finished work itself. Something about seeing all of Rodin's iterations on sculpting a hand makes both the artist and the artistic process seem more human, more relatable, and more artistically nourishing. However, the study is not often employed outside the visual arts, and especially not within music...until now.Instead of building up a collection of songs and finalizing a selection of them onto a new album, I will be publishing the drafts, intermediary versions, and steps along the way as collections of "song studies." For this first collection, most of the songs are straightforward guitar and vocal, one take recordings. This is the first batch of new songs post- new album (go listen to "Everything's amazing but then again couldn't be worse"), which is always a fun artistic time where new themes start to form. Some of these songs may make it onto future albums and receive greater production, some may be significantly altered, and some may be thrown away forever.
This collection of song studies was mostly written over the first week or two of July 2022 and recorded over a week at the end of August 2022. Everything was recorded in an East Harlem apartment, with GarageBand 5.1, on a 2009 MacBook.
The artistic development focus on these studies was how to record/mix/master more sparsely arranged songs. The album was more maximalist (within DIY GarageBand acoustic standards) and it felt really muddy and too busy at times. I also wanted to see how fast I could write and record songs. There’s something about the immediacy and irregularity of a quick single take that can make art more raw. I tried to see how allowing those imperfections to stick, instead of hitting another take or trying to scrub them clean, would feel. I also want newer songs to feel more campfire-y. These ideas of “campfire songs” and the Brechtian “singing about the end times” only came to me after the songs for the last album were already written, so I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to actualize that vision. Still, these are pretty straightforward and within my songwriting wheelhouse. I think next time I should get more inventive, especially now that I’m growing more comfortable with the artistic study medium.
At this point, I'm all about the process, baybeee. More song studies are swiftly on the way. Thanks for listening. H.A.G.S.